Why Psychoanalysis?

Elisabeth Roudinesco, Rachel Bowlby

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English

Columbia University Press
28 November 2001

Psychoanalytical theory (Freudian psychology); Psychiatry

Series: European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism

"Why do some people still choose psychoanalysis-Freud's so-called talking cure-when numerous medications are available that treat the symptoms of psychic distress so much faster? Elisabeth Roudinesco tackles this difficult question, exploring what she sees as a ""depressive society"": an epidemic of distress addressed only by an increasing reliance on prescription drugs.

Far from contesting the efficacy of new medications like Prozac, Zoloft, and Viagra in alleviating the symptoms of any number of mental or nervous conditions, Roudinesco argues that the use of such drugs fails to solve patients' real problems. In the man who takes Viagra without ever wondering why he is suffering from impotence and the woman who is given antidepressants to deal with the loss of a loved one, Roudinesco sees a society obsessed with efficiency and desperate for the quick fix.

She argues that ""the talking cure"" and pharmacology represent not just different approaches to psychiatry, but different worldviews. The rush to treat symptoms is itself symptomatic of an antiseptic and depressive culture in which thought is reduced to the firing of neurons and desire is just a chemical secretion. In contrast, psychoanalysis testifies to human freedom and the power of language."

By: Elisabeth Roudinesco
Translated by: Rachel Bowlby
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 218mm, Width: 144mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 340g
ISBN: 9780231122023
ISBN 10: 0231122020
Series: European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism
Pages: 184
Publication Date: 28 November 2001
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

"Part I. The Depressive Society 1. The Defeat of the Subject 2. The Medications of the Mind Part II. The Great Quarrel Over the Unconscious 3. The Soul Is Not a Thing 5. Frankenstein's Brain Part III. The Future of Psychoanalysis 4. Behavior-Modification Man 6. The ""Equinox Letter"" 7. Freud Is Dead in America 8. A French Scientism 9. Science and Psychoanalysis 10. Tragic Man 11. Universality, Difference, Exclusion 12. Critique of Psychoanalytic Institutions"

Elisabeth Roudinesco is a historian, psychoanalyst, and critic who teaches at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. She is the author of twelve other books, including Jacques Lacan (Columbia) and Revolution and Madness: The Lives and Legends of Theroigne de Mericourt.